Peaceful Protest

[Dags90]

In extremely tense situations like this you get massive physical escalation. The police are trained to be ready to react with billy clubs to the most minor threat, perceived or actual. Add in crowded spaces and it's just an awful situation waiting to turn violent. Someone gets pushed into a cop, cop retaliates as he's trained to do, and suddenly a "peaceful protest" has turned into a riot.

 

[Kurokami]

In extremely tense situations like this you get massive physical escalation. The police are trained to be ready to react with billy clubs to the most minor threat, perceived or actual. Add in crowded spaces and it's just an awful situation waiting to turn violent. Someone gets pushed into a cop, cop retaliates as he's trained to do, and suddenly a "peaceful protest" has turned into a riot.

I agree with this, and considering the stupid shit I've seen done by 'peaceful protesters' it's not surprising that they're looking for the worst.

 

[Dags90]

I agree with this, and considering the stupid shit I've seen done by 'peaceful protesters' it's not surprising that they're looking for the worst.

Perhaps the worst part is that all the protesters are afforded the same treatment as those few dicks who roughed up a copper due to the snap decisions these situations require.

 

[Duskwaith]

So long as I have no information regarding what protest you are talking about, to make my own - informed - decision, I will not take the word of some stranger off the internet that the protests were truly peaceful, and that the police had no reason to use force.
Just saying, this OP is awfully one-sided.

Really? I reported what i saw verbatim and even admitted there was some action by some idiotic members of the crowd. The news did a great job of both underreporting the actual volume of people there yet exacerbating the damage done. Why did you even join a forum to participate in online debates iif the other ruled can be disregarded by "oh they are a stranger" ,it isnt an isolated case as the same happened in Dublin but the Gardi are getting done for brutality.

Also the police had their faces blocked out on the news yet those who were protesting were shown not to mention the use of hand held cameras to deliberatly film the crowd. I dont remember giving anyone permission to film me at any stage or to be able to use that against if needed be at a later date

 

[Jonluw]

So long as I have no information regarding what protest you are talking about, to make my own - informed - decision, I will not take the word of some stranger off the internet that the protests were truly peaceful, and that the police had no reason to use force.
Just saying, this OP is awfully one-sided.

Really? I reported what i saw verbatim and even admitted there was some action by some idiotic members of the crowd. The news did a great job of both underreporting the actual volume of people there yet exacerbating the damage done. Why did you even join a forum to participate in online debates iif the other ruled can be disregarded by "oh they are a stranger" ,it isnt an isolated case as the same happened in Dublin but the Gardi are getting done for brutality

The case here is that I have no idea what protests you are talking about, and I have not read the news articles of which you speak. I'm only getting one point of view here, and for all I know, you could be some anti-government person who is only out to make the government look bad. I will not blindly accept the word of a forum-goer as the truth.

You're basically saying "Here's a story of how I went to a peaceful protest. What do you think about the police using violence against us for no reason at all?"
When someone claims to have been mistreated, there is always another side to the story; and the one claiming to having been mistreated is not often all that reliable. Exaggerations aren't very uncommon when people report how they feel they have been treated badly.

Perhaps the police had a very real reason to resort to violence? A reason that you did not notice, or that you are simply leaving out in order to make them look bad. In either case, I don't know; so I can't really form an informed opinion.

 

[Cheesus333]

Does anyone remember a time when they were genuinely proud to be a UK citizen?

I'm 16, so I don't. I'm just curious if there's anyone that does who is, in fact, still amongst the living. The country's going to shit faster than a swarm of bluebottles on adrenalin shots, and having the police force brutalise and savage its citizens is not the solution.

 

[guntotingtomcat]

Do you know why this happened?
Elsewhere in London, policemen were injured by rioters, some seriously.
Public property was damaged.
Flash gangs organised attacks on targets throughout the city.

All of them were part of the same protest.
Sure, you may have been peaceful, but every gathering was acting peaceful, until a group came out to smash a shop window or attack an officer.

You were treated rough because petty thugs were wreaking chaos. The police had no way to distinguish between legit protesters and downright criminals, until it was too late.

Don't blame the police.

Blame the out of control idiots who made a mockery of your organised protest.

And were you really expecting the media to be on your side? You not just feeling a little bitter because you didn't receive as much publicity as you thought you would?

 

[guntotingtomcat]

Does anyone remember a time when they were genuinely proud to be a UK citizen?

I'm 16, so I don't. I'm just curious if there's anyone that does who is, in fact, still amongst the living. The country's going to shit faster than a swarm of bluebottles on adrenalin shots, and having the police force brutalise and savage its citizens is not the solution.

People in Britain have been saying this forever.
The country is just as bad as it always has been.

Want something to be proud of? Our national health service, where your income is irrelevant to the quality of your treatment within it. THAT is something to be proud of.

As for 'police brutality', see my other post on this thread.

 

[guntotingtomcat]

So long as I have no information regarding what protest you are talking about, to make my own - informed - decision, I will not take the word of some stranger off the internet that the protests were truly peaceful, and that the police had no reason to use force.
Just saying, this OP is awfully one-sided.

Really? I reported what i saw verbatim and even admitted there was some action by some idiotic members of the crowd. The news did a great job of both underreporting the actual volume of people there yet exacerbating the damage done. Why did you even join a forum to participate in online debates iif the other ruled can be disregarded by "oh they are a stranger" ,it isnt an isolated case as the same happened in Dublin but the Gardi are getting done for brutality.

Also the police had their faces blocked out on the news yet those who were protesting were shown not to mention the use of hand held cameras to deliberatly film the crowd. I dont remember giving anyone permission to film me at any stage or to be able to use that against if needed be at a later date

By protesting you are given tacit consent to be publicised. And most of the protesters I saw that night had their faces obscured by balaclavas.
Police officers have id numbers on their helmets, by the way, for identification.

 

[Cheesus333]

Does anyone remember a time when they were genuinely proud to be a UK citizen?

I'm 16, so I don't. I'm just curious if there's anyone that does who is, in fact, still amongst the living. The country's going to shit faster than a swarm of bluebottles on adrenalin shots, and having the police force brutalise and savage its citizens is not the solution.

People in Britain have been saying this forever.
The country is just as bad as it always has been.

I hope so, as it stands I just feel like it's on a steady decline. If it were always this crap, at least there's no worse to fear... right?

Want something to be proud of? Our national health service, where your income is irrelevant to the quality of your treatment within it. THAT is something to be proud of.

Maybe, maybe. Certainly better than the idea of charging someone for being injured or sick.

As for 'police brutality', see my other post on this thread.

And so I did. It's clear to see there's wrong on both sides of the conflict: the thugs shouldn't have been causing havoc (though that goes without saying), and the police should have considered the difference between protest and riot more thoroughly. Although this is only based on what I know, and/or have read.

 

[MikeOfThunder]

I'm living in Manchester as a student.

I found the protests that i witnessed to be pretty pathetic really. I'm not referring to the lack of numbers in the march on Oxford Road or anything but how many of the protestors went about it:

-First, despite a person at the ront holding a sign saying 'this is a peaceful protest not a riot', that didn't stop being wearing balaclavas and masking their faces up. The first quarter of the march looked like thugs who didn't give a shit and rather wanted a fight.

-Second, plenty of the protestors were communists. Now i have no problem with this, in fact i'm pretty into discussing different ideas, but when all i see red 'hammer and sickle' flags all over the place... it just loses what the march was suppost to be about.

I understand why people marched and i think those that did it peacefully, i fully support... but i think to many student participated because it was 'rebellious' rather than fully giving a damn about the fees.

So Escapists do you think that this peaceful protest was deserving of such heavy handedness and were do you draw the line between letting a peaceful protest carry on and useing force to break up a group of people protesting

Bare in mind previous protests had already broken out into violence before, i'm sure the police were possibly just preparing for the same outcome. Granted if there was little wrong with what you were doing then there is no such need for that behaviour.

In the end though, i think the majority of the protestors wre fine, its just a shame about the few that were absolute morons. As soon as people attach their own agendas onto the march (such as the communist students) then it loses most of its credability and unfortunately those that simply wanted to protest against the fees were essentially fucked over.

 

[Geekosaurus]

The tuition fees protests are a disgrace. Most people don't even know why they're protesting because they're totally misinformed.

 

[TheReactorSings]

For anyone interested in a first-hand, non-partisan view, my friend Nick has blogged about his experience in the 'riots'. It's only one perspective, of course, but I think it's a fair and sober assessment compared to much of the media coverage...

http://fouls.blogspot.com/2010/12/dont-piss-in-kettle.

 

[Something Amyss]

Absolutely agreed. If students riot, the Government can turn around and say, "Do these people really deserve ANY help??" Thus, Government = good, students = evil.

Seems a pretty big leap, especially when taking the original post on blind faith.